Lakeside Chat with Boost VC Founder Adam Draper#
Yesterday, Matt McKinney of ArcBlock, attended Seattle Blockchain Underground’s exclusive interview with Boost VC’s Adam Draper. For those users who are not familiar with Adam Draper, his company Boost VC has been investing heavily into the cryptocurrency and blockchain companies and as early as 2014 wanted to target and accelerate up to 100 bitcoin companies. Today, Boost VC has more than 220 companies in its portfolio including the increasingly important company called Coinbase.
The hour-long discussion covered a wide range of topics including the need in the United States for some regulatory approval for mass adoption to occur. Adam discussed that while many of the smartest and most innovative people he knows are working in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, those same people are also looking at locales and countries where the rules have already been defined. Many people in our area have been discussing the increasingly important state of Malta as a place to run a blockchain/crypto company. While the United States created the internet that doesn’t mean that it gets the same high marks for the potential next-generation internet. Whether it is about understanding the technology, or indeed about fiscal policy, the cats already out of the bag and blockchain/crypto aren't going anywhere.
Adam also went on to discuss some other topics including what he thinks to be the next generations breakout app or service that is akin to Facebook for the next generation. While Adam wouldn’t commit a particular service or app, he did comment that he believes it will be something around the idea of digital scarcity, or the ability to redefine something that is inherently digital. For example, what about redefining how domains work. Today, ICANN has a virtual monopoly on domains and what would happen if someone came in and created a decentralized the entire process that would continue to give it the regulatory mechanisms needed to work but redefine the power structure of the digital asset.
Some of the other highlights of the event were some great one-liners by Adam. For example, “the one thing crypto has that the internet didn’t….is the internet,” or “we are now able to rapidly prototype governments at scale. Build governance, consensus, and constitutions with forks.” An interesting conversation that occurred when talking about governments was around the idea of what comes first - innovation or regulation - and/or does one work without the other. With use cases like Bitcoin do those technologies already have enough regulation built in that additional regulation isn’t required? It’s a bit of a circular conversation but an interesting topic to explore.
Overall, it was an energetic discussion, and it was great to see the leaders in the blockchain space together discussing and listening to big ideas, big topics and looking at ways to change the world. Check out the audio interview here.
Website: https://www.arcblock.io/